Pakistan Not Included in FATF’s Terrorist Financing Watchlist

Pakistan has not been added to the grey-list of global money-laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) after conclusion of the task force’s plenary session on Friday.

The list called ‘jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies’, available on FATF’s website, includes the names of Ethiopia, Iraq, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu, and Yemen. It excludes Pakistan’s name.

Earlier yesterday, Reuters quoting sources, had claimed that the decision of including Pakistan in the grey-list had been made.

The next plenary meeting of FATF is expected to take place in June this year.

The Afghan President’s office, however, said that Pakistan should have been added in watchdog’s list so the country would have ended supporting terrorist groups.

“Pressures are effective and it can lead the fight against terrorism into success,” said the president’s office Deputy Spokesman, Dawakhan Minapal.

The move to put Pakistan on grey-list of FATF, was part of U.S. strategy to pressure Pakistan to cut alleged links to terrorist groups, unleashing chaos in neighboring Afghanistan and backing attacks in India.